CANDIDATE PROFILE: Oleh Sheremet, Rukh Party (03/08/98)

CANDIDATE PROFILE: Oleh Sheremet, Rukh Party

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Oleh Sheremet gave himself perhaps the most difficult challenge of the 4,000-plus candidates to the Verkhovna Rada when he decided to run against Chairman Oleksander Moroz, the most powerful person in Ukraine's Parliament, in the March 29 elections.

Not only is he running against the speaker of the legislature, but he is doing it in an electoral district that consists largely of old people and pensioners, who tend to vote for Communists and Socialists.

But the doe-eyed, baby-faced agronomist believes that he understands the problems of the people in the farming region of the southern Kyiv Oblast - after all, he grew up in a farming village - and that with some luck he will be able to slip ahead of Chairman Moroz and other leftists running in the district.

"My basic reason for running in the 92nd District is that I believe I have an alternative to the agricultural program proposed by the Socialist Party," said the Ternopil native.

Mr. Sheremet's strength lies in his agro-industrial experience. He is the director of Ukragroconsult, a consulting firm on agro-technology for businesses and individuals entering Ukraine's agricultural sector and owner of Vian, an agricultural company that specializes in the cultivation of corn, sugar beets and a variety of vegetables. His Vian corporation is located in the district in which he is running.

The businessman-farmer said that today's Verkhovna Rada does not know how to work, and that all of Ukraine's economic prospects lie with the new deputies who will be elected in March. "I fully understand that it will be difficult to change things. But I believe that the new Verkhovna Rada will be a team that can make change happen," said Mr. Sheremet. "It can only be done with a consistent effort expended on a daily basis. It cannot happen with deputies who are more concerned with their personal business."

He says that he has been campaigning daily and that in his travels he sees to what extent agriculture in Ukraine has been destroyed and how villagers are suffering as a result. "I believe that I can help in the revival of the agricultural sector. I travel my district, which is farms. I see what is happening. People haven't received their pensions for six month. But I believe that they are starting to see with whom the problems lie," said Mr. Sheremet.

He is an outspoken critic of the agricultural platform of the Socialist Party and its leader, Mr. Moroz, and believes that their agricultural program would only continue the deterioration of Ukraine's agricultural sector. "The Socialists want no Western investment and want no privatization of land," explained Mr. Sheremet.

He said the most difficult choice that Ukraine must make today is which political path to take. "Today there is the path to the past, which the left is calling for," explained Mr. Sheremet, "It is an impossible path and cannot be taken. Then there is the second path, which is not fully developed: the democratic path."

Mr. Sheremet said that in today's Ukraine, people, politicians included, do not understand fully just what democracy entails. He quoted from his own campaign literature: "Democracy is not uninhibited freedom, but, in the first place, individual responsibility for what you say, how you act and the decisions you make. A true democrat is a responsible person."

The 31-year-old explained that not all the philosophical concepts of socialism need to be discarded, just as not all the excesses of free-markets need to be adopted. "Socialism had some pluses. It had a good education system, medicine and social insurance," said Mr. Sheremet. "So far we have kept the worst features of the old system - no responsibility from above and individual apathy - and have taken the worst of the Western system - drug addiction, prostitution and racketeering."

He said he would like for Ukraine to follow the path of the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic and Poland, which have moved forcefully to a free market system, but have kept elements of the socialist system in place.

But he explained that he fears that Ukraine is taking a third, even worse path, "the Colombian path," as he called it, in which "government echelons are corrupted and the market is neglected."

Mr. Sheremet believes that within the Rukh Party he has a chance to get elected and make positive changes. He said that although he only formally joined Rukh during the summer, he has been a supporter since before independence. It is the strongest of the democratically inclined parties in Ukraine, he believes, and has the cleanest political record, a free-market oriented economic plan and is the most avid advocate for the rejuvenation of Ukrainian culture.

"And one more thing," added Mr. Sheremet, "National Rukh made the greatest contribution to the destruction of the totalitarian system, and so I believe that it is Rukh that has the best ability to build a democratic, free-market system."

So then what are the chances for Mr. Sheremet, who unblinkingly agrees that, at times, he does not feel comfortable in political shoes? He explained that his toughest challenge will be to defeat Chairman Moroz, a political powerhouse with high name recognition.

But he sees a bigger threat in ballot falsifications, which he and his campaign manager, Ivan Lozowy, a former U.S. citizen and political activist in the United States, are working to overcome. "A major problem will be to overcome attempts to falsify the elections," said Mr. Sheremet. "In the last elections there was an unusually high number of falsifications, and that is according to people I have talked with from the region." (In the 1994 elections Mr. Moroz defeated Oles Shevchenko by a close margin in the second round of a controversial election.)

He said that a second obstacle is to overcome the lack of faith that people have in politicians. "I would even put that as the biggest obstacle."

The political novice believes that caring for the constituency he hopes to serve is the key to getting himself elected and being an effective legislator. "I promise my constituents my personal responsibility for my work in the Verkhovna Rada," he said. "I believe that most deputies remember those who elected them only six months before elections. I will remember them, every day that I serve, and I plan to explain to them in the district, the reason for each of my actions in the Verkhovna Rada."